People in Zongwu: Starting with the Yin Gui Sect

Chapter 358

In the seventh year of Tianqi, the winter solstice.

In the Ming Dynasty, the grand court meeting was generally held on the winter solstice, the first day of the lunar year, and the emperor's birthday.

The time of the court meeting happened to start at the hour of Mao, so even the emperor Wu Yu had to get up from the bed at the hour of Yin, and then after a wash, try to go to Huangji Square before the hour of Mao.

At the beginning, Wu Yu did not think about changing the time of the court meeting, but when he thought that he seemed to have only a few court meetings throughout the year, he finally gave up the idea.

And this so-called winter solstice court meeting, in fact, in Wu Yu's view, is similar to the annual summary of later generations.

Ministers report the work results of their departments in the court, and put forward new plans and suggestions, and the emperor will evaluate the performance of each department based on these reports and make corresponding decisions.

In addition, the winter solstice court meeting is also an important social occasion. Ministers can take this opportunity to communicate with each other and enhance their feelings, and at the same time, they can also express their loyalty and respect to the emperor.

Therefore, for the ministers, the Winter Solstice Court is not only a work summary, but also a social event, and an opportunity to show their talents and abilities.

Of course, in addition to these, the last link of the court is to accept the envoys from the foreign vassal states to pay homage and tribute.

Of course, this tribute must also be returned, especially for the suzerain state like the Ming Dynasty, the value of the gifts returned is often ten times or even dozens of times more than the tribute from the vassal states.

Although this seems a bit like a swell-up face in Wu Yu's eyes, in order to maintain the majesty and style of the Celestial Empire, even if he is unwilling, he has to do a good job on the surface. Otherwise, once the vassal states see the weakness of the Ming Dynasty, it will inevitably make those small countries have some thoughts that they should not have, causing many unnecessary troubles.

With the three cheers of "Long live the Ming Dynasty", it also indicates that Wu Yu's fourth court meeting since he ascended the throne for nearly a year has officially begun.

After the annual summary report was completed, the Minister of Revenue Bi Ziyan stood up again.

"Your Majesty, I have something to report!"

On the surface, he had something to report, but this old man had a sour face, as if Wu Yu owed him millions of taels.

And this was exactly the case, and the cause was very simple. More than a month ago, after the four Tengxiang guards led by Fang Zhenghua came back from the south to collect commercial taxes, this old man got the news from nowhere and blocked the gate of the Qianqing Palace as soon as possible.

According to the other party, since it was a commercial tax, it would naturally go into the national treasury, but now Wu Yu wanted to put it into the inner treasury, and Bi Ziyan naturally disagreed.

But Wu Yu was obviously not easy to deal with. He said that all the money was collected by my Imperial Horse Supervisor, and dozens of people died for it. Why can you take it away just like that?

So the two quarreled about this matter. In the end, Wu Yu couldn't stand the old man's throwing tantrums, so he agreed to give half of the commercial tax paid this time, that is, 12 million taels, to the old man.

But who knew that this old man didn't know what it meant to be contented. After seeing Wu Yu give in, he became more and more aggressive.

It wasn't until Wu Yu used his inner strength to seal his mute point, and then slapped him out of the Qianqing Palace, that the matter came to an end.

But since then, this old man would put on a sour face every time he saw him, as if he didn't know him well.

In addition, this old man was a well-known miser. Unless it was issued by the cabinet, even the emperor himself would not think of deducting a penny from his pocket.

He even came to him from time to time to cry poor and asked him to take money from the treasury to subsidize the national treasury.

Of course, Wu Yu naturally refused such a thing. Just kidding, public is public, private is private. Unless there is a real emergency and the Ministry of Revenue really can't take it out, no one can touch a penny of his treasury.

After shaking his head and collecting his thoughts, Wu Yu said, "Approved!"

Bi Ziyan calmed down after receiving the answer, and then said, "Your Majesty, since the second half of this year, the two capitals and thirteen provinces of our Ming Dynasty..."

Then Bi Ziyan talked a lot, but in the final analysis, there were only a few natural disasters and man-made disasters.

There was a large-scale drought in the north, and almost no harvest, while in the south, floods and waterlogging disasters continued in various places. Today, this dam was washed away, and tomorrow, that farmland was flooded. In short, in the past year, there were few good places in the entire Ming Dynasty, and the number of people affected by the disasters on both sides was no less than several million.

In addition, some unscrupulous vendors maliciously hoarded grain, causing the price of grain, which was only one or two taels, to increase five or six times. This was the result of Fang Zhenghua killing a large number of people, otherwise the price would probably increase again..

"Then how do you think this matter should be solved, Bi Aiqing?"

Hearing that it was another food problem, Wu Yu rubbed his brows with a tired look. He naturally knew about this kind of thing, but he didn't have a good solution for it.

If you want to suppress the price of food, you must have enough food reserves, but it is precisely what the Ming Dynasty lacks most now.

Even though he has planted sweet potatoes in all his imperial farms, the harvest is indeed good, but it is still far from enough to feed millions of people.

"Your Majesty, I suggest that the court issue a law requiring that all food prices should not exceed 30% of the original."

This answer was thought of by Bi Ziyan a long time ago. Now when he heard Wu Yu asking for his opinion, he immediately said it out.

But as soon as he said this, someone immediately stood up to oppose it. Wu Yu took a closer look and found that this person was not from the Donglin Party, but from the Zhejiang Party.

The official named Xue Qianyue said, "Your Majesty, the increase in grain prices is nothing more than the shortage of grain in the market.

The increase in commercial taxes by half has already made countless merchants uneasy. If we follow what Lord Bi said and directly introduce laws to prohibit grain price premiums, I am afraid that merchants across the country will be uneasy."

As soon as he finished speaking, he was countered by Bi Ziyan, "According to what Lord Xue said, do those millions of people deserve to starve to death, or does Lord Xue have a way to get grain to suppress grain prices?"

Hearing that Bi Ziyan used the lives of millions of people to morally blackmail him, Xue Qianyue was also angry.

"Master Bi, please don't put a hat on Xue. Xue just said that we can't arbitrarily introduce laws to suppress grain prices. When did he say that we would let the victims starve to death?"

"Then why don't you give us the grain?"

"This is your Ministry of Revenue's problem. What does it have to do with Yue?"

"How about you do it? I'll let you take charge of the resettlement of the millions of victims, how about that?"

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Seeing that the two were about to fight, Wu Yu had to speak up to stop them. If they continued to quarrel, it would become a vegetable market.